When a number of my clients need similar information and we cannot find an existing book that is effective, I fill that need by creating a book with the practical information, real-life examples, and effective, step-by-step exercises which will help you get the results you want.

“I love your books. I always kind of shied away from self help books as I was embarassed to think that I could not solve problems myself. Then I picked up your books and realized just how self efficent I really can be. You have changed my life in so many ways and I canot thank you enough for becoming a writer.” Amanda, Biloxi, MS

“I cannot thank you enough for the books you have written. We are just now going through a sensitive and delicate time with our daughter and one of your books is helping all of us cope and understand. You are keeping us all on the same page and that is something I will forever be grateful for.” Laura, Westwego, LA

PAPERBACK EDITION

KINDLE EDITION

How to Be a Couple and Still Be Free

“Being a couple yet free is our next challenge on the evolutionary ladder. This book successfully helps us unravel the myths that block that achievement. It does so with warmth, readability, and balance. It recreates everyday problems and paints the path to their solution.” — Dr. Warren Farrell, Ph.D., author of Why Men Are the Way They Are.

For over three decades, this book has been recognized as THE established handbook on relationships between equals. It introduced the concept: cooperation instead of compromise or competition. It gives clear instructions to show you how to be true to yourself and true to your partner at the same time.

The book is designed especially for:
• People who seek a model for equal partnership.
• Couples who want to transform struggle into teamwork.
• Couples who are married, cohabiting, or dating.
• Couples who are in a traditional, LGBTQ or alternative relationship.
• Couples who’ve discovered their method isn’t working.
• Divorced people who are looking for a better way.
• LGBTQ people who seek a model from being a couple.
• Anyone whose parents showed them how not to be a couple.
• Single people seeking loving intimacy as equals.

How to Be a Couple and Still Be Free is the perfect tool for designing and creating a relationship unique to your individual personalities and situation. With it, any couple can learn to work together to create a loving, sustainable, healthy, and equal partnership that you will treasure.

PAPERBACK EDITION

KINDLE EDITION

How to Be Happy Partners: Working it out Together

How to Be Happy Partners: Working it out Together is a handbook on how to achieve mutual happiness, through cooperative negotiation and communication. Couples are led through a step-by-step process whereby each one learns how to take care of what he or she wants and care for a partner’s happiness at the same time.

The clear and concise instructions and guidelines teach couples the skills they need to create a mutually supportive partnership allowing each individual to be satisfied in their relationship. It is based on The Negotiation Tree, an ingenious tool that can help any couple turn a struggle or fight into a cooperative problem-solving session.

The book is designed especially for:
• People who seek a model for equal partnership.
• Couples who want to transform struggle into teamwork.
• Couples who are married, cohabiting, or dating.
• Couples who are in a traditional or alternative relationship.

How to Be Happy Partners is the perfect tool for designing and creating a relationship unique to your individual personalities and situation. With it, any couple can learn to work together to create a loving, sustainable, healthy, and happy partnership that both will treasure.

The Real Thirteenth Step is a powerful exercise and information-packed manual to accompany the journey of people in recovery. Readers will learn how to develop the three central skills of true autonomyrisk taking, problem solving, and coping with failureand how to apply them to every aspect of their lives: relationships, work, decision-making, stress, and the temptations of addiction.

Discover the six steps necessary to create real inner change: techniques so powerful, they‘re called magical tools. These tools are taught through exercises proven in therapy and workshops to help clients gain control of their lives and remain free of relapse. With the exercises and guidelines in this book, readers can learn what they need to complete their recovery and achieve self-confidence and autonomy. Dr. Tessina invites you to move beyond recovery to a satisfying life of joy and healthy relationships.

It Ends With You: Grow Up and Out of DysfunctionCreate Space Independent Publishing Platform • March 22, 2014
ISBN-10 149733070X • ISBN-13 978-149733702

“I recently came across the Dr. Romance Blog page "Getting Out of your Way," which lead me to It Ends With You: Growing up and out of Dysfunction. Your materials come at a time of rapid and active recovery for me, out of trauma and later post trauma, and they feel like the voice that says, ‘It's okay. Not only are you okay but here's why.’ And bless your heart, your writing is accessible and friendly. A heart-felt thank you. You're writing is helping me get through my final laps on what has been an incredibly adverse journey.”  a reader

“I am half way through It Ends with You and I love it! It's the first book I have read, and I have read many, that pinpoints mannerisms and behaviors that reflect our childhoods and gives specific feedback on how it could effect us as adults. It has really caused me to think about my own behaviors and where they have originated. Having a father who is manic_depressive, I get scared easily by certain behaviors that I possess that I learned from him...I hope that your book will prevent these behaviors from developing into my own and for me not to seek out boyfriends that reflect my father's erratic moods. I am eager to not only finish this book, but look into some of your other books as well.”  Amanda, a reader

Many parents have few tools to teach their children and little knowledge of how to provide a good example. As a result, family dysfunction often runs through succeeding generations like a snowball rolling down a hill, gathering speed and power as it goes. Growing up, and learning to be responsible for yourself, is like standing at the bottom of that hill and not letting the dysfunction be passed on any further. It Ends With You.

In 25 years of counseling people in recovery, licensed psychotherapist Tina Tessina has worked with many clients struggling with similar problems-anxiety, depression, feeling out of control, relationship disasters, and a pervasive feeling that they don't know what normal is. No matter how old they are, they don't feel like they've really grown up. They never learned the confidence, self-motivation, and emotional management tools they need to live healthy, happy lives, because their families didn't provide good role models, structure, and information.

The exercises and guidelines in It Ends With You will help you finally understand what a functional family is, how its members are still affected by early experience, and how to develop the skills necessary for successful living and loving.In her book, The Groom's Guide (Citadel, 2004) Sharon Naylor says “The best [self help book] I've seen out there is It Ends With You: Grow Up and Out of Dysfunction by Dr. Tina Tessina, Ph.D. Work through this book and you’ll undoubtedly clear away at least some of the old baggage you didn't even know you have. You’ll step out of your old habits, take a good look at them in the light, and see if you’re willing to bring unhealthy dealing skills into your new marriage. This book gives you new choices, worksheets, and solutions for a fresh start in your new life, not a repeat of your old one.“

The longtime psychotherapist and bestselling author of The 10 Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make Before 40 now turns her attention to the special challenges and opportunities available to women over forty. In mid-life, many women find themselves in new circumstances. Women with grown children discover more free time or consider returning to school, or a new career. Movers and shakers may want to consider the possibility of setting up their own businesses. Women of all sorts will find themselves thrust into the role of caretakers to their parents and grandparents.This practical and effective book helps them map their options and outline their strategies for taking complete control of their lives.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Maturity: the Freedom to Decide
Chapter 1: Decide to Re-decide Make Your Life Your Own
Chapter 2: Change Your Life Roles
Chapter 3: Revitalize Your Career, or Try a New One
Chapter 4: Focus on Friendship
Chapter 5: Decide to Stay Healthy
Chapter 6: Secure Your Financial Position
Chapter 7: Never Too Late: Decide to Be the Person You Might Have Been
Chapter 8: Decide to Use What You Know to Have More Fun
Chapter 9: Decide to Create Joy and Meaning in Your Life
Chapter 10: Give Something Back
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix: Resources for Further Exploration

Lovers have differences
different desires,
different values,
different needs,
different styles.
Discover your style.
Understand your partner's.
And make the differences work
to enrich your life.

THE MORE YOU AND YOUR
PARTNER ARE DIFFERENT,
THE MORE YOU NEED
THIS BOOK.

You’ll find it delightfully refreshing in its approach to showing you how to use the differences in your lives to bring you closer together.

No two people have exactly the same idea of what it takes to be successful in love. Most of us believe there is a “right” way to love, and if only we could figure it out, our loneliness and relationship struggles would all melt away.

In this book, you’ll learn that everyone has a unique lovestyle, and there are many “right” ways to love. Discover what lovestyles are, how they evolve, how to communicate about love, and how to use your differences to create romance and excitement in your relationships. You can make your differences work for you to enrich your partnership and your lives.

“Perceptual and practical exercises to synthesize differences and encourage long-term results” As seen on Oprah, CNN and Larry King Live.

Lovestyles is for:
• Single people seeking to create a successful relationship
• Couples who feel “stuck” or want to improve their partnership
• People whose past relationships felt confining, uncomfortable or unworkable.

“There are only a handful of people in the United States who are writing books that are helping society look at things in new ways, as opposed to those already part of the consensus. Tina Tessina is one of that handful”  Warren Farrell, author of Why Men Are the Way They Are

“Most people do things for their loved ones that reflect how they want to be treated. But the Platinum Rule is: Do unto others as they would wish you did unto them. And there is no better way to explore each other's needs than to follow the journaling suggestions in this book.” Amazon customer review

“With a Ph.D., eight books, and 30 years of counseling experience, under her belt, [Redbook Love Expert] Tina [Tessina] has a lot to say about the everydays of life and love.”Redbook.ivillage.comIn this book, you'll learn to view your relationship as a partnership, rather than a challenge or a competition, and you'll discover new ways to think about sharing and working together to make all your decisions about money, sex, and kids mutual ones. With a little information and practice, you can become a successful, happy couple. The point of this Money, Sex and Kids is to show you how to create a partnership in which you'll feel blessed and happy. Here you'll learn to understand why you and your partner argue and the remaining skills you need to enhance your relationship and transform your struggles into working together to create a smoothly working partnership.

With this book, you'll be able to resolve your issues about money, sex, and kids, and move on to having a workable, satisfying relationship, with minimal or no arguing or fighting.

Finally, much needed relationship help for geographically challenged couples! THE COMMUTER MARRIAGE: Keep Your Relationship Close While You’re Far Apart (Adams Media; May13, 2008; Trade Paperback Original) by respected Ph.D., Tina Tessina speaks directly to the more than 4 million U.S. couples juggling the unique struggles only long-distance marriages face.

As society becomes more mobile and as jobs move or involve travel more than ever, couples must create ways to stay connected while physically separated for days, weeks, months, or years. Even working different shifts or managing long commutes may mean couples living in the same house never see each other during waking hours. Keeping a connectionboth physically and mentallyis no easy feat.

According to Dr. Tessina, “Spending time apart is both a blessing and a problem. When you have time apart, it can freshen your relationship and remind you what you love most about your partner. On the other hand, if you begin to resent the separation, and don’t communicate well while you’re apart, your marriage has the potential to quickly unravel.”

With a specific program designed to help couples maneuver this terrain, Dr. Tessina helps readers through everyday situations, such as:
• Managing two homes, financially and physically
• Raising kids when one parent is distant
• Holiday and visiting schedules
• Overcoming jealousy and suspicions
• Maintaining a healthy sex life
• Reintegrating when two homes become one again

With quizzes, exercises, and studies from Dr. Tessina’s practice, readers will see what worksand what doesn’t. So whether the decision to commute is voluntary or mandatory, couples can not only keep their marriages intact but make their unions stronger.

"I learned so many skills from reading The Unofficial Guide to Dating Again. When I went out this weekend I was SO aware of going out to have a good time instead of going out in hopes of ‘meeting someone.’ Hung out with friends, did the things I like to do, stayed up late, went out to breakfast and best of all no expectations other than to have a good time. And I did!"  Scott

If it’s been a long time since you've surveyed the dating scene, the rules have changed. How do you get started? Where do you go to meet new people? What are the unwritten rules? What if you’re a single or divorced parent? And what about.......sex? Here's how to meet, greet and compete in today's dating world, complete with strategies for success and safety. The inside scoop for making dating fun and worthwhileon the Internet, in everyday life, and specifically tailored to your age, situation and personal preferences.

TABLE OF CONTENTSI What Brings You Here?
1 Dating Again: Excitingand Terrifying!
2 The Problems, and How to Overcome Them
II Developing Your Dating Skills
3 Preparation
4 Let’s Get Out There and Have Fun!
5 Defining the Dating Players
III Where to Go
6 Squirrel Hunting
7 Making the Most of Your Dating Venue
IV The Dating Process
8 Getting Connected
9 Oh My Gosh! It’s a Date!
10 Becoming Intimate
11 If It Goes on from Here
12 Officially Dating
V Dating’s Dilemmas
13 And Baby Makes Three
14 The Potential Downside of Dating
A Resources
B Recommended Reading List

PAPERBACK EDITION

KINDLE EDITION

The 10 Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make Before 40HCI, Deerfield Beach, 1998 • ISBN 1558746145

One of the best books for women that I have read. It takes desires and dreams and shows you a step-by-step practical way to achieve them. For any woman who wants to do more than talk about changing her life, a road map to her goal.Sonya Friedman, PhD, , Sonya Live

This no-nonsense guide shows women how to create the futures they want for themselves by making some fundamental choices.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Why Women? What Decisions? 1 The Power of a Good Decision: Decide to Make Intelligent Choices 2 Don’t Let Your Past Hold You Back: Decide to Resolve Old Issues 3 Where Are You Going? Decide to Set Realistic Goals 4 Who Loves Ya, Baby? Decide to Make the Most of Who You Are 5 Go for the Goals: Decide to Get the Education and Training You Need 6 Make the Connection: Decide to Be an Effective Communicator 7 Be Young in Mind: Decide to Keep Learning 8 It Takes a Village: Decide to Build Personal and Professional Networks 9 Never Too Rich: Decide to Create Financial Security
10 Are We Having Fun Yet? Decide to Balance Work and Play
Conclusion
Appendix: Resources for Further Exploration
References
About the Authors

Gay Relationships: How To Find Them, How To Improve Them, How To Make Them LastTarcher, 1990 • ISBN 0874775663

The first, and still the best, major book on Gay and Lesbian relationships it takes you step-by-step through your relationship, making it better, making a commitment, and sharing a long life together. Reassuring and supportive.